Beavis And Butt-Head Do The Universe Release Date, Cast, And Trailer
"You hear that, Beavis? We're back." Yes indeed, Butt-Head. Yes indeed you are.
Paramount+ announced their intention to release a new "Beavis and Butt-Head" movie in February 2021, a good 25 years after their last cinematic outing, "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America." Fans everywhere rejoiced. After all, it had been over a decade since these two had briefly returned to the small screen. The 2011 attempt at a revival on MTV didn't go quite as well as expected, and MTV opted not to renew the series past the initial 22-episode agreement. Since then, fans have already been teased with the announcement in 2020 of another "Beavis and Butt-Head" relaunch, this time on Comedy Central. Details of that have also been less than forthcoming, though we do now know that the series' planned relaunch has been moved to Paramount+ (per Deadline).
Details of the movie since the initial Paramount+ trailer had also been scant. Until today, that is. Coming out of nowhere in a similar fashion to Beavis' surprising brilliance as a music critic, the new announcement revealed the name of the duo's upcoming film. They also have everything they need to prepare for the return of this beloved anarchic pair.
What is the release date of Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe?
Paramount and Mike Judge have been impressively tight-lipped about further details since the film's initial announcement. Sure, Judge teased us with a few drawings of a seemingly middle-aged Beavis and Butt-Head and a tweet about the dumbfounded duo's efforts to get back into shape. But ultimately, we didn't have much else to go on.
Now, we not only have a title — "Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe" — we have a release date: June 23 (via Deadline). This makes it the second adult animation film to premiere on Paramount+ during the month of June. "South Park: The Streaming Wars," the first of a whopping 14 feature-length films "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker are expected to deliver to Paramount+ (via Comedy Central), dropped on June 1. If Paramount execs are indeed trying to corner the market of animated adult juvenalia, they have a very good head start.
Who's in the cast of Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe?
We already know who is going to voice Beavis and Butt-Head, and once again, it's the show's creator, Mike Judge. And frankly, we should expect Judge to voice a great many other characters, given that initially, he was the near-entirety of the cartoon's cast. But historically, "Beavis and Butt-Head" has attracted a lot of star power, from Bobcat Goldthwait and David Spade in the original series to Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, Cloris Leachman, and David Letterman in the 1996 movie. This is to say nothing of the numerous guest appearances they made on Letterman's own late-night show back in the day, or the fact that Cher once did a duet with them on a cover of her 1965 hit with Sonny Bono, "I Got You, Babe."
"Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe" is no exception. The cast, per Variety, will include Gary Cole and Stephen Root (both of whom have worked previously with Judge, most notably in "Office Space"), along with Tig Notaro, Chris Diamantopoulos, Andrea Savage, Jimmy O. Yang, Nat Faxon, Brian Huskey, Chi McBride, and Martin Starr.
What do we learn from the Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe trailer?
The trailer starts, unexpectedly, inexplicably, with Beavis and Butt-Head going to space. Whose bright idea this was is never mentioned. Maybe NASA is trying to study how zero gravity affects stupidity. From there, the trailer takes an even more unexpected turn, as Beavis and Butt-Head are sucked into some kind of time vortex, landing them in the year 2022. Hijinks with smartphones, Beavis' alter-ego Cornholio riling up prison inmates, and even a run-in with seemingly intelligent cosmic doppelgangers all follow.
This is an interesting device. One complaint of the attempted revival was that the characters, and the show itself, were essentially stuck in the 1990s. What had made them edgy 20 years prior was now old hat (via USA Today). It could very well be that the decision to catapult the characters into our own time is Judge's attempt to prove that, given the right circumstances, their brand of humor can still work.
There's another possibility. Toward the trailer's end, we see, for a split second, Beavis and Butt-Head in middle age. It's just the back of their heads, but it's enough for us to see the clear resemblance between them and the sketches Judge tweeted in January. It's here that we need to remember that, when first announced, Comedy Central's relaunch of "Beavis and Butt-Head" was branded as a reimagining of the series. Is it possible, given the time travel and everything else, that "Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe" is the departure point for this reimagining? Have our idiotic boys grown up into idiotic men?
Questions abound, and we won't have even a vague answer to any of them until June 23. Waiting sucks.